Ian Dunt

1 month ago | inews.co.uk | Ian Dunt

Over the past few days, we’ve started to see the first really big split in the Trump administration break out into the open. Peter Navarro, an empty-headed conspiracy theorist with dreams of economic literacy, is an architect of the tariff policy. Elon Musk, a Gen-X reject, is charged with setting fire to the American state. Morally, they are both as bad as each other. But ideologically, it turns out that there’s a distinction between them.

2 months ago | inews.co.uk | Ian Dunt

This might be the single stupidest thing any of us will ever see. It is stupid in every way: presentationally, intellectually, politically, methodologically, morally and of course economically. The word stupid doesn’t really suffice for the full level of idiocy we’ve now reached. It’s as if we’ve attained a new state of human mindlessness, a kind of species milestone. This is what empires look like when they fall: lost to mania, paranoia, jealousy and spasms of baseless rage.

2 months ago | inews.co.uk | Ian Dunt

There’s something deeply humiliating about this moment. Sometimes you wonder how much we can possibly take. It’s not clear how long Britain can tolerate being bullied, dismissed and belittled before we stand up for ourselves. International trade is not a place of high emotion. It’s supposed to be the site of cool, rational, calculated self-interest. But politics is a place of high emotion. Emotions matter. They define the way that governments are seen and whether they succeed.

2 months ago | iandunt.substack.com | Ian Dunt

The truth of the Marine Le Pen story is simple. She fucked around. She got found out. What did she actually do? You'd be hard pushed to find out, given that very few news outlets seem motivated to tell you. If you're really lucky, you'll get a brief mention of the court statements around paragraph 12, once all the populists got to have their say about how French democracy is being trampled over. So I'll tell you here, and I'll put it up top, above the digital fold, where it should be.

2 months ago | inews.co.uk | Ian Dunt

If you listen to her critics, Rachel Reeves is obviously some kind of demon. She delights in robbing disabled people of their dignity. She’s damaged the economy due to her cynical political point scoring. She’s prepared to return us to austerity in order to preserve a discredited fiscal rule. The reality is entirely different. Reeves is following a cautious approach to the predicament she’s in. Most of her actions are the result of perfectly sensible decisions.